Best playgrounds in the Bay Area

My colleague Reyhan Harmanci is working on some Exploratorium-related stories for an upcoming Sunday Datebook edition, and is hoping to write a side story about the best Bay Area playgrounds. I was going to give her my list of favorites, but thought it would be more democratic to open it up to The Poop readers.

Paul Chinn/Chronicle

More danger = more fun!

I haven’t lived anywhere else since having children, but I think we have it pretty good in the Bay Area. It seems as if there are new playgrounds being built or refurbished all the time, and a lot of the old ones are unique and interesting. We also seem to have a lot of non-profits focused on kids. I was excited to take my son by the Yerba Buena Gardens Playground two blocks from my San Francisco workplace last month — and there were Zeum employees setting up activities for the kids.

To be fair to the smaller parks, I’m going to break this up into two divisions. The Park Division focuses on larger “destination” playgrounds in larger park areas and the Neighborhood Division will honor outstanding achievement for playgrounds serving a smaller area. Anywhere in the Bay Area is fair game, although I’d like to exclude places with a hefty entrance fee.

My picks are below. Yours in the comments …

Paul Chinn/Chronicle

Koret Children’s Quarter

Park Division: This was a tough one. There are a lot of great big playgrounds in the Bay Area, including several that have been restored in the last two years. Coyote Point Park near San Mateo makes my short list, as does Children’s Wonderland in Vallejo and Union Point Park in Oakland. The playground in Joaquin Miller Park is pretty basic, but the multiple Works Progress Administration-era fountains and spectacular views put it in the conversation.

My winner is Koret Children’s Quarter in San Francisco. This Golden Gate Park superplayground opened two years ago to a great deal of fanfare, and it’s worth the hype. It’s huge and clean and has a variety of play structures for all ages. I especially like the fact that the architects weren’t complete wussies when designing the playground — they included several semi-dangerous additions including a concrete slide and a giant rope climbing structure. There’s also the unfortunately spelled but still very enjoyable “Carrousel” next door. 320 Bowling Green Drive, San Francisco.

ggmg.org

Rossi Playground.

Neighborhood Division: With all due respect to Oakland, the best neighborhood parks that I’ve seen are in San Francisco, on the Peninsula and in the North Bay. Pretty much every park I’ve been to where my sister and parents live in Santa Rosa and Healdsburg gets at least an 8 out of 10.

My favorite is Rossi Playground, a newly refurbished play area in in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond, which we visited a couple of months ago with my aunt, her partner and a cousin. The area is really big, there are some unique play structures and elements of the old park have beem mixed in with the new, including this cool thing. Not even sure what it is, but tile mosaics are awesome. I love that an old tree was kept in the middle of the park, and you’ll see kids climbing it like it was any other jungle gym. There are also a couple of big fields and a pool nearby. Located at 600 Arguello Blvd, San Francisco.